It’s a familiar trope: angry men berating each other in kitchens as pots furiously boil, sauces burn and a giant slab of beef rests in the background. The dominant view of a professional kitchen is one of chaos and pent-up fury – a gladiatorial contest of male ego. Why then do we also hear the misogynistic refrain that women ‘belong in the kitchen’ if, in a professional context, they’re all but erased from them?
A Woman’s Place is in the Kitchen is the story of Sally Abe’s rise to become an award-winning chef in the brutal world of restaurant kitchens; how a girl from the midlands who used to cook herself Smash to get by is now one of the most successful fine-dining chefs working today.
More than that, Sally’s story is also a stirring manifesto – drawing back the curtain on restaurant kitchens to show how she is endeavouring to change them for the better. Filled with stories of Michelin-starred food, the relentlessness of kitchens, as well as the hope for the future of the culinary landscape, Sally’s memoir is set to become a classic.
Sally Abe is a fine-dining chef at the top of her profession. She has worked in some of the best establishments in the UK, including The Savoy, The Ledbury, and she retained a Michelin star at The Harwood Arms, the UK’s #1 gastropub. She currently runs The Pem, named after the suffragette Emily Wilding Davison, which boasts a team of 80% women producing some of the finest dishes in London. She was named Female Chef of the Year in 2021 by SquareMeal, and was shortlisted for GQ’s overall Chef of the Year in 2021. She is constantly working to get women into the hospitality industry and create fair, safe, and happy living standards within kitchens across the UK.
